NASA predicts 2016 will be the hottest year on record

Eleven of the past 12 months have seen record high temperatures. (AccuWeather)

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Friday, October 21, 2016

Have you been feeling the heat lately?

NASA has predicted that 2016 will be the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1880.

Eleven of the past 12 months saw record high temperatures, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). If NASA's prediction is correct, it will be the third year in a row that the temperature record has been broken, according to AccuWeather.

Dr. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA GISS, attributes the record temperatures to this year's El Nino weather pattern warming Pacific waters near the equator, and the rising concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere, according to AccuWeather.

With data now available through September, 2016 annual record (~1.25ºC above late 19th C) seems locked in. pic.twitter.com/Btp3Vutakn